Chương 9
One folder carried Victoria’s name.
She learned about it from Reyes in the parking lot of the safe apartment.
He handed her a photocopy inside a plain envelope.
The file contained photographs of Victoria leaving work, picking Lily up from school, buying groceries, and standing outside Mark’s Denver apartment during a custody exchange two years earlier. There were copies of her divorce filings, mortgage information, academy tuition records, and a report noting that she sometimes left Lily with an elderly neighbor when called to work after midnight.
At the bottom of one page, someone had typed a question.
PRESSURE POINT: CHILD?
Victoria folded the page.
“When was this created?”
“Eight months ago.”
“Before Richard claims he knew I was investigating him.”
“Yes.”
“So he had a leak then.”
“Yes.”
“Who accessed my personnel information?”
“We’re auditing.”
“Who knew Lily’s school?”
“Anyone watching me.”
Reyes put his hands in his coat pockets. The wind moved dead leaves across the pavement.
“Pike built most of the files,” he said.
“How do you know?”
“Formatting matches reports from his detective years.”
“Where is he?”
“We found blood in his apartment.”
Victoria looked at him.
“How much?”
“Enough to concern us. Not enough to prove death.”
“Whose?”
“Testing.”
“Signs of struggle?”
“A broken lamp. Cleaned floor. Missing laptop.”
“Richard?”
“In custody.”
“He has people.”
“So does Pike.”
Victoria folded the photocopy again until it became a small square.
“I brought Lily into a room with a man who had studied her for eight months.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I was paid to know.”
“You were paid to investigate a bribery network, not predict every move.”
“I ignored an order.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t have to keep saying it gently.”
“I’m not being gentle.”
She looked at him.
Reyes glanced toward the apartment windows.
“OPR is likely to recommend a suspension without pay,” he said. “Maybe demotion.”
“Not termination?”
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because the office audio recovered from a backup server shows Ethan attacked Lily before you touched him. You used minimal force. You displayed credentials after Richard claimed control over police. It still violated protocol, but it wasn’t what his lawyers described.”
Victoria felt no relief.
“Does the recording have Richard’s statements?”
“Yes.”
“Then the arrest survives.”
“Probably.”
“And Ethan’s confession?”
“Juvenile prosecutors are reviewing it.”
“He’s eleven.”
“I know.”
“His father hit him.”
“Child services interviewed him. He denied it.”
“He was told not to speak.”
“He has counsel.”
“Richard’s counsel?”
“Separate attorney paid by Richard’s family trust.”
“Separate in billing only.”
Reyes nodded.
Victoria looked at the folded square in her hand.
“I don’t want Lily testifying.”
“She may not have to.”
“She will if the phone becomes central.”
“Nora can use the video without putting Lily on the stand at the detention stage.”
“At trial?”
“We’re not there.”
“That means yes.”
“It means we’re not there.”
The phrase angered her because she had used it herself with frightened witnesses.
“What happens to Ethan?”
“For now, he’s staying with Meredith Cole.”
“She returned from Geneva?”
“She was never in Geneva. Richard lied.”
“Where was she?”
“At her house in the north suburbs.”
“Why didn’t she come to the office?”
“She says Richard didn’t call.”
Victoria unfolded the page and looked again at the typed question.
PRESSURE POINT: CHILD?
“Richard didn’t plan to protect Ethan,” she said.
Reyes watched her.
“He planned to control what Ethan said.”
That night, Lily woke crying without sound.
Victoria found her sitting upright in bed, fists pressed against her eyes. Mark stood in the doorway, uncertain whether to enter.
Victoria sat on the edge of the mattress.
“Headache?”
Lily shook her head.
“Bad dream?”
Another shake.
Victoria waited.
“I heard the chair,” Lily whispered.
“What chair?”
“When Ethan kicked it. I keep hearing it scrape.”
Victoria placed one hand on the blanket, not touching her.
“I hear it too.”
Lily lowered her fists. Her eyes were swollen.
“You weren’t scared.”
“I was.”
“You didn’t look scared.”
“I’ve practiced.”
“Why?”
“Because scared people sometimes need someone else to look steady.”
“Were you steady?”
“No.”
Lily looked toward Mark.
He sat on the floor beside the bed, back against the wall.
“Dad says you might lose your job.”
Victoria glanced at him.
“I said there was an investigation,” Mark said.
“You said she broke rules.”
“She did.”
Lily’s face tightened.
Victoria spoke before Mark could continue.
“He’s right.”
“You saved me.”
“I should have taken you out of the office first.”
“You stopped Ethan.”
“I did both things. One does not erase the other.”
Lily pulled the blanket higher.
“Do you wish you didn’t?”
Victoria considered lying.
“No,” she said. “I wish I had done it differently.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It may later.”
Lily was quiet.
Then she said, “I don’t want to talk in court.”
“You don’t have to decide tonight.”
“I don’t want everyone watching the video.”
“They won’t show the whole thing publicly unless there is a legal reason.”
“That means they might.”
“Yes.”
“I was talking in it.”
“What did you say?”
Lily looked embarrassed.
“I was pretending the car was a person. I gave it a voice.”
Mark’s mouth moved.
“Don’t laugh,” Lily said.
“I’m not.”
“You are inside.”
“A little.”
The room softened by a degree.
Victoria looked at her daughter.
“If the video is used, your attorney can ask that private parts be protected.”
“I have an attorney?”
“You should.”
“Do I have to pay?”
“No.”
“Who does?”
Victoria almost said the government, then realized Lily would hear that as the same people who wanted the video.
“I will.”
Mark lifted his head.
“We will,” he said.
For the first time since he arrived, Victoria did not correct him.
Owen Pike’s blood was found beneath the cleaned floorboards of his apartment, mixed with traces from an unidentified second person. The amount suggested injury, not death. Airport footage showed Pike entering a parking garage and leaving through a maintenance corridor in different clothes.
May you like
He had planned his disappearance.
A week after Richard’s arrest, a package arrived at the federal prosecutor’s office. It contained the missing hard drive from Richard’s desk and a handwritten note.
